Instagram: "Your Photos Are Your Photos. Period."

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Their response and what it means for you.

By Scott Lowe

Earlier today, controversy erupted over Instagram's proposed Terms of Service revisions, which, at first glance, seemed to reserve the company's ownership of and right to sell its users' personal photos. Slated to take effect in January, the changes were quickly denounced by many users and the media. In response, Instagram's founder, Kevin Systrom, has published a blog post in hopes of setting the record straight, promising clearer language in the agreement and to reiterate that owners retain ownership of their photos.

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We respect that your photos are your photos. Period.

With its the original draft, Instagram required users to agree to grant the company with a "royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license" to their photos for use in advertisements without compensation or notification. While Systrom claims that company is exploring means of generating advertising revenue in the form of promoted accounts and content, not unlike those found on Twitter and Facebook, it has no plans to repurpose users' photos for advertisements. He goes on to claim that the language was erroneous and misleading and will be removed in an upcoming revision to the document.

Systrom makes no attempt to deny that the company will still use user data and images to create "more relevant and useful promotion," such as users' photos being associated and surfaced on a promoted partner's account. According to the post, users who set their photos to private, however, will be immune — only those approved to follow their account will be able to see their posts.

Exit Theatre Mode

Finally, Systrom addresses concerns from professional artists and photographers, reiterating that ownership of images has and will remain in the hands of users. Of course, under the previously mentioned provisions, public photos may still be associated or promoted with a brand as part of a paid partnership.

In the end, Instagram's proposed Terms of Service revisions remain somewhat fuzzy, but it's clearly not the unscrupulous infringement many originally claimed it would be. Instagram is simply reserving the right to use advertising models already in use by Twitter and it's new parent company, Facebook. Without a paid subscription model, Instagram's only asset is the content and traffic produced by users. Using it to generate revenue is neither unreasonable nor unprecedented. While the policy may be unfavorable to professional photographers who expect revenue from the distribution of their works, the practice should be considered a harmless cost of entry for the unfettered use of an otherwise free service.

Instagram plans to modify its new Terms of Service agreement before it takes effect in 30 days.

Scott Lowe is IGN's guru of Tech. He enjoys coffee, burritos, and moonlit walks. You can follow him on MyIGN Scott-IGN and on Twitter @ScottLowe.